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Call to Action: 400th Solidarity Sing Along marked by increase in police vigilance

Whether the Fitzwalkerstanis Like It or Not,

We'll Be Here 'Til Wisconsin Gets Better

Guest post by MoD contributor

Ryan Wherley

I am strongly encouraging as many people as possible to head on down
to the Capitol for tomorrow's 400th Solidarity Sing Along in the
Rotunda, Monday June 25th, from Noon until 1 p.m. The Capitol Police
force's post-election behavior has been increasingly bizarre, from an
increased presence that has been following certain individuals around,
to approaching other citizens and asking them why they keep coming back
to the Capitol with ther signs. Most notably alarming, various police
officers have been taking thorough notes profiling all
singers/dissidents in attendance daily and writing down verbatim the
content of signs being held inside of the Rotunda. Additionally, there
has been a noticeable influx of plain-clothed "observers" making their
presence felt on a regular basis. Proceedings under the dome seem to be
trending towards the Department of Administration and its secretary,
Mike Huebsch, feeling that the time is drawing near to begin enforcing
its unconstitutional rules passed last December against the First
Amendment rights of individuals inside of and around the Capitol
building.

The crackdown on the rights to freedom of
speech, freedom of assembly and the freedom to petition our government
for a redress of grievances easily could have already taken place last
winter. However, approximately one thousand individuals showed up in
defiance and Solidarity to sing in the shadow of the Capitol Rotunda's
beautiful holiday tree, on December 19th, 2011, the day the new and
unconstitutional rules were supposedly to be put into effect. Before
and since that day, a dedicated group of citizens and heroes of the
movement show up without fail at the Capitol to sing inside of the
Rotunda on every Monday through Thursday and occasionally some Fridays
after the outdoor Sing Along has ended. These Wisconsin Winter
Soldiers' constant presence on the ground floor, first floor and second
floor of the Rotunda is an important and necessary reminder of why we're
still here, tracing a direct lineage back to the original Capitol
Occupation attempting to stop the passage of the Budget Despair Bill in
the winter of 2011. Not so coincidentally, the Capitol Police and DoA
never bothered attempting to quell dissent by enforcing these new
anti-protesting rules. Or so it seemed, up until Capitol Police Chief
Charles Tubbs ended his time overseeing the bulding shortly before the
election, in order to pursue a job working for the Dane County Emergency
Management Agency.

They hoped we would go away after the
June 5th Recall election. We didn't. They hoped the numbers would
dwindle around the Capitol on a daily basis. They haven't. They hoped
that we would forget and pretend everything is all gravy in Wisconsin
now. We didn't and it's not. Scott Walker's bought and sold victory in
the election on June 5th means one thing for the sake of Wisconsin's
future: it's in as much trouble now as it was on June 4th. The need to
maintain a consistently visible and vocal presence inside of the Capitol
is as important now as at any time since the original Occupation last
February and March. The Fitzwalkstanis now bellow hollow rhetoric about
"moving forward" and "working together" in hopes that everyone will
forget what happened to our state under the Governer's shameful idea of
"leadership" over the past 18 months and what will continue to happen
going forward.

I've said before that I and hundreds of
thousands of others were awakened in the beginning months of 2011. I'm
sure as hell not going back to sleep now, even if the habitually
untruthful and heartless Scott Walker essentially tells us that it's
time to move along...nothing to see here. Sure thing, Scooter. Pay no
attention to the man behind the curtain trying to amend the state
constitution in order to take away the citizens' unabridged rights to
recall elected officials, hold them accountable for their actions and
prevent the elected despotism we've become accustomed to in
Fitzwalkerstan. Cover your ears when State Assemblyman and Joint
Finance Committee co-Chairperson Robin Vos and Republican National
Committee chairman Reince Priebus unconscionably drum up fears of
rampant voter fraud for weeks before the recall elections, only to use
the city of Racine and Democratic Senator John Leman's narrow victory on
June 5th as guinea pigs for their implicitly racist and explicitly
unfounded theories. Turn away from the television when Scooter refuses
to address the question of whether or not he would sign a statewide
union-busting Right to Work for Less bill into law if it should MIRACULOUSLY
find its way to his desk, even though he has "no interest in pursuing
that." Don't ask any questions when members of the United State
Congress follow up with the Governer as to whether or not he'd like to
amend his public testimony last year to account for its perjurious
nature following the release of his explosive "Divide and Conquer"
conversation with billionaire Diane Hendricks. Cast the newspaper aside
when radical, anti-choice organizations say they are eagerly hoping
that the Republicans re-claim control of the state Senate in the
November elections so their orgs can resume pushing their extreme
anti-women's health agenda through the Wisconsin legislature. Bury your
heads in the sand when thousands of teachers are laid off, countless
public employees see massive pay cuts to their newly calculated "base
wages" as their current union contracts expire, extracurricular
activites are cut and class sizes rise in schools and class offerings
decline and tuition rises at our public universities, as the painful
reality of another $800 million worth of scapegoating policies and
shamelessly austere cuts to public education hits home. Oh yea, and definitely avoid
visiting websites where Capper Liebenthal,Jud Lounsbury, Lisa Mux,
Greg Gordon and countless other citizen journalists and bloggers uncover
and report on an ever-unfolding story as the federal government and
Milwaukee County D.A.'s office closes in on Scott Walker and his
Criminal Defense Fund via the ongoing John Doe investigation. Can't
leave that one out!

There are plenty of reasons to keep
showing up at the Capitol, continue speaking our minds and serve as
omnipresent reminders to a corpo-fascist like Walker that although we
may not have recalled...we will assuredly never forget. I hope to see a
large turn out to sing songs of hope, labor, Solidarity, populism and
especially, Wisconsin, inside of the Rotunda tomorrow. Bring your
singing voices (no matter how off-key,) bring your banners (no matter
your level of artistic ability,) bring your signs (but not on sticks)
and bring your unbridled passion for social justice and the First
Amendment. Just make sure that you don't bring your snakes, though,
(you hear me, Matt Johnson?) as, for some unknown reason, those are
still notably banned from entry into the Capitol. Don't be shy.
Remember to keep showing up inside of Our House whenever you have the
chance...for as recently-passed activist Doleta Chapru penned in "Pass
the Cheddar," one of her many Wisconsin-based song remakes, "We'll be
here 'til Wisconsin gets better"...and we have a long ways to go before that day comes. SOLIDARITY!!

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